When I play Breakout I want my balls to bounce under a logical angle. If my
ball bounces of a completely wrong and unexpected angle and I miss the ball
because of that then I am annoyed and quit. Same goes for a plaformer. If I
see a set of spikes I must see by the shape I should avoid them. If I first
have to hit a spike to notice that these are deadly and I have to start the
game over again then I’m gone. Alternatively if I see a triangle pointing
upwards within a platformer it should be a spike. If my experience tells me
that these things usually are spikes then I avoid them. And if this happens
to be the secret bonus element needed to actually complete the game and I die
because I avoid it then that is bad game design. As a player I should see directly
what I can expect from a situation. If I see a big pit with red smoking lava
I know I should avoid it. If a player dies because of lack of understanding
of what an element does then he will very likely quit the game.
Lack of game play
Stop at 500
Stop a timer at a specified moment. No think work required at all.
To many games these days focus purely on the graphics. A game should be varied
and interesting. It would of course be nice if it has some fancy graphics but
it aren’t the graphics that make the game. It’s the gameplay. You
can have beautiful graphics but if your game is boring people won’t play
it. Good graphics can enhance a game a lot. However without the game play there
is little that graphics can do. If you have a game where the only goal is to
press a key at a certain moment then the game will be boring. People want variation
within there game.
A game revolves around taking decisions. In Pacman you decide whether you go
left, right, up or down. That keeps the game exciting, as you know what you
must do. If your only decision is to stop a timer then the game will get incredibility
dull. A player should always get new decisions, which he must choose. A player
should not be walking for 5 minutes to the left without doing any thinking.
A player mind should be kept busy throughout the game.
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